In which my Pensacola thinks it's really a Battleship;

[Phoenix_jz]

 

Well... I just had my greatest game in the Pensacola, and it was truly a soul-crushing defeat. Sadly, I don't have the replay, as I just did a fresh re-install last week (which seems to have fixed a near-chronic disconnection issue I'd been having for the week prior)... but the screenshots should tell the story. 

 

Basically, In a Trident game that started out with a rather poor performance by me, getting decent damage done, but staying at long-range and not pushing because it just so happened that all four of the enemy battleships decided to waltz over to the the side of the map I was on (and naturally, that didn't mean my team on the other flank took advantage of that).

Eventually, at some point in the game, I decided that I stopped caring, and went ultra-aggressive. Forget shooting cruisers with the glorious American Piercing shells (Irony, because I shot at an Omaha and Marblehead XD), let's see how the battleships like it? Well, not before I nailed a Mutsuki trying to disappear in smoke with a blind shot over and island, with AP for 5k damage...

 

Anyways Colorado's superstructure eats a lot of it, I'll tell you that. Oh, and then I decided to brawl with a Kirishima and Ishizuchi, and epically, our Colorado followed me into the B-cap to do it, and we won that fight, though I died at the end of it... Ok, well, I'll stop now, the screenshots should speak for themselves. Oh, and those 17 secondary hits with 2 fires? All on battleships

 

Most fun 125k damage I've ever done, and not in a ship I'd ever expect to do it in...

 

 

Sadly, we lost by the clock... our team only got two of the caps after our epic run on B... and it was too late... the enemy had a CV left, and an afk Kuma (three tier IVs in this game because of divisions)... oh man. Best game in a ship? It's a loss... Agghhhh!!!!!

 

Funnily enough, my Indianapolis thought it would get in on the action too, thinking it was also a battleship. Just look what her AP did!

 

 

Yep, that's a max range salvo that gave me a citadel. On a Fuso, yes, but it's still a citadel on a battleship with an 8" heavy cruiser XD

Well, a little later that game my Indianapolis though it was a battleship again, and thought it could pop around a corner and surprise a Nagato. 

 

Indy's AP is strong.

 

Not her amor though 

 

The Nagato reminded my Indianapolis what it actually was, and flat-out deleted me from a little over 2/3's health.

 

Well, those were the highlights of my night playing world of warships. 9 games, 6 wins. 

 

TL;DR - American Heavy Cruisers sometimes act like Battleships. 

 

They're not.

 

Even if they can pull of more reliable AP damage against battleships than my Bayern can 

[ckupf]

Fuso and Kongo have notoriously weak deck armor, I've citadeled them both at long range with an Atlanta. The Pensacola has good pen on those shells even at the angle they come at from max range. USN 8" SHS (the Balti and DM AP) can citadel any ship in the game through the deck I believe. You just gotta be far away and hit the right spot.

[Hatework]

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen that many fail divisions in one game.

 

Nice game on your part either way.

[TenguBlade]

Kongo, Fuso, and Nagato all have weak deck armor that can yield citadels.  Fuso A even gets citadeled through the deck by British 6" AP.  Since the citadel bounce glitch was fixed, Nagato is no longer vulnerable to American CA citadels, but Fuso and Kongo (not to mention Dunkerque, not sure about Mutsu but Nagato A was still vulnerable while it existed) can still eat multi-cit salvos at point-blank range (<5km) from American 8" guns.

 

But you haven't seen the power of American AP until you use them against other CAs.  USN CAs murder other cruisers more effectively than any other warship in the game: with a battleship, you have to be lucky, or, in the case of the Scharnhorst, be somewhat close.  American CAs can hit for multi-cit salvos even at max range, and even against angled targets thanks to the lowered autobounce windows.  Close range is still where they're most murderous, but given that they're usually among the best-armored CAs at their tier, that's hardly a problem.  Pensacola is the exception, but even she resists cruiser fire quite well when not full-broadside.

[SireneRacker]

 

 

It shouldn't be "enemy Cruiser destroyed", but "Democracy was given to another Commy"

[212thAttackBattalion]

In which my Pensacola thought it could bottom tier carry my team...

 

[Carl]

Kongo, Fuso, and Nagato all have weak deck armor that can yield citadels.  Fuso A even gets citadeled through the deck by British 6" AP.  Since the citadel bounce glitch was fixed, Nagato is no longer vulnerable to American CA citadels, but Fuso and Kongo (not to mention Dunkerque, not sure about Mutsu but Nagato A was still vulnerable while it existed) can still eat multi-cit salvos at point-blank range (<5km) from American 8" guns.

 

But you haven't seen the power of American AP until you use them against other CAs.  USN CAs murder other cruisers more effectively than any other warship in the game: with a battleship, you have to be lucky, or, in the case of the Scharnhorst, be somewhat close.  American CAs can hit for multi-cit salvos even at max range, and even against angled targets thanks to the lowered autobounce windows.  Close range is still where they're most murderous, but given that they're usually among the best-armored CAs at their tier, that's hardly a problem.  Pensacola is the exception, but even she resists cruiser fire quite well when not full-broadside.

 

Fuso and Kongo have notoriously weak deck armor, I've citadeled them both at long range with an Atlanta. The Pensacola has good pen on those shells even at the angle they come at from max range. USN 8" SHS (the Balti and DM AP) can citadel any ship in the game through the deck I believe. You just gotta be far away and hit the right spot.

 

None of the US 8" guns have an angle of fall steep enough at any range to penetrate any deck they do not overmatch. If they don't overmatch it's a guaranteed auto bounce. If you have actual video of 8" AP going through decking they don't overmatch you need to submit it to WG'ing bug reports because it shouldn't be possibble.

[Phoenix_jz]

Oh, between Indy and Pepsicola, I've murdered untold numbers of Cruisers.

 

I had a game on Neighbors recently where a large force of enemy cruisers, all with light armor, happened to go down the flank I went down, and they had no BBs or DDs with them...

 

Citadel city. I think I got something like 7 citadels put of that match... Not as important of a game damage wise, though. Not compared to this one.

 

I've actually been getting into trouble with my IJN CA's recently, because I keep taking shots with AP that would normally pen... If I was in an American CA

[Phoenix_jz]

 

 

None of the US 8" guns have an angle of fall steep enough at any range to penetrate any deck they do not overmatch. If they don't overmatch it's a guaranteed auto bounce. If you have actual video of 8" AP going through decking they don't overmatch you need to submit it to WG'ing bug reports because it shouldn't be possibble.

 

Perhaps the normalization changes the angle just enough to allow it? 

[Phoenix_jz]

Oops... I did it again  

 

10.6 kilometer shot on a New Mexico.... my Indianapolis thought, for the second night in a row that, yes, by jove*, it has battleship guns!

*Jove? I'm going Roman now... must be because Roma Soon^TM...

 

 

I seriously cannot possibly get tired of this;

 

 

I decided that my picks for skills were mistakes, so I'm re-doing many of my cruisers.... And while the lower traverse on my guns is annoying, I'm loving adrenaline rush (Almost got a 10 point captain, but I swapped out PM for PT and EM for AR from the old build. I kept SI as my t3 skill because yay for extra hydro and radar!). My aggressive playstyle in Indianapolis frequently leaves me at the point where I'm pulling 12 second reloads, 5 rounds per minute with guns only rated at 4...

 

Oh, and in case anyone's interested in how it turned out;

 

Not a stellar game for me, did decent damage, but had lots of other good players on my team to outscore my overly aggressive... antics?

 

I think we need an official "Cruiser citadels on Battleships" Thread...

 

Just for the lols

[Carl]

 

Perhaps the normalization changes the angle just enough to allow it? 

 

Normalization occurs after the autobounce check, if your at or beyond autobounce, you bounce, period.

[Falls_USMC]

Just started the 'Nawlins grind. Never thought I would miss the Pepsi, but I kinda do. Making the consider getting the Indy....

 

And for the unofficial Penasacola Fan Club that this thread has started: 

 

[Chrifister]

Pensacola is a beast against CAs. Guns have wicked angles and low dispersion. Hate her but apparently I'm pretty good with her.